More Warhammer session recap: Sailing to Aquitaine

Dramatis Personae

Onfroy - fencer and louche extraordinaire, with a fetish for female urine

Willem of Nye - death wizard, searcher of artifacts, seeking of Enochian and Elohim mysteries

Regis aka Don Gonada - spy and huckster, the voice of reason

Okra, a female ogre smith, good at smashing, always hungry

Twiggett Plumbottom, halfling thief

Stomply Rockcrusher, ornery dwarf Ironbreaker

The madcap Warhammer fantasy roleplay adventures continued. Now, mutated berserking freak companion Boneshard long dead, new holder of the Chaos Blade Onfroy with newly mutated goat-legs (hidden with a long dress thing compounding his already-bizarre appearance), the companions sail on the Swan Maiden to Bordeleaux.

The captain of the Maiden then refuses to land in Bordeleaux unless the party pays the notoriously expensive docking fees levied by the Duke. After some haggling, the party therefore is dropped off south of the river mouth. There, they ingratiate themselves with a minor landholder who is vassal to Bordeleaux. Learning through drunken revelry that the Duke Albericht of Bordeleaux in fact knows Regis from many months ago when Regis helped thwart the ratmen attack upon the City, the lord offers to bring him to the Castle Bordeleaux in exchange for a kind word and better position at court. 

The presentable members of the party are presented at Duke Albericht's court (e.g. Onfroy and the Ogre are left behind). Greeting the Duke himself, Regis convinces him that they are now a mercenary-type company who will attempt to kill Duke's now-rival, Agravaine the Usurper, murderer of the true Duke of Aquitaine, in exchange for some supplies and right to claim any loot. Duke Albericht agrees, sorely pressed since plague and war have ravaged his lands the past year and a half or so. While his army gathers in preparation for a late spring campaign against Agravaine, he entrusts the group with a war-boat captained by Estaine Mustaigne and a bevy of boatmen to take the fight to Agravaine. 

[DM's notes: There was a lot of confusion here about getting past the city and we had to retcon where the party landed when everyone realized there was miscommunication about paying fictional docking fees. Such is D&D eh? But it ended up being a fun side quest dealing with the lord and roleplaying his interest in the motley group.]

The party then set out with Capt. Estaine down the river Morceaux towards the upriver Castle Aquitaine, last visited by Boneshard and Regis as Agravaine had it under siege. 

Along the way, Estaine asks the party what they want to do about possibly being seen from the few castles lying along the river between Bordeleaux and Aquitaine. Somehow, the group decides that they want to raid one of these keeps for treasure. Coming upon a castle upon about a day and a half's sail from Aquitaine, they launch a night-time raid using the wizard's teleportation spell.

the keep they decided to raid

[DM's note: I definitely gave all wizards an overpowered spell by houseruling that Teleport can be used on not only the caster, but one additional touched person per 2 success levels. Channeling for a quite a time with a skilled wizard resulted in being able to teleport the whole party past the castle walls. This was a ruling I made over a year ago on the skaven adventure, and here it is, biting me.]

Once inside the castle, the murderous group made a short attempt to sneak around and get the lay of the castle features, chiefly by the very good hider Twigget. But a door opened, and Stomply Rockcrusher was like, fuck this, and laid waste to a whole room of guards with the help of Okra the Ogre and Willem's death magic. The alarm was raised, and several knights inside the donjon including a knight who was clearly the lord fought with the party. But Willem used a Lock spell to keep the porticullis shut, which was reinforced when Regis and Onfroy murdered their way up through into the gatehouse and jammed the chainwheel. Though Okra could not fit through the towers' stairwells, Willem managed to teleport them up several floors in pursuit of knights who backed away after seeing his death magic lay waste to their fellows. The Lord himself, still nameless to the party, managed to get away back up the upper floors from where he came, but not without many of his men-at-arms being slain beneath ogrish warhammerand fell magicks. And the locking of the porticullis ensured the roused and mounted knights and bowmen from the courtyard could not lay waste to the party. In short, I was impressed how the party used the confines of the castle donjon against its occupents - enabled of course by Willem's spellcraft.

keep knight, with a bec de corbin

The party has now made its way up all the stairs, rummaged quickly through the lord's bedroom, and made it to the roof, hearing sounds from there. Regis and Onfroy have emerged from the stairway in one of the donjon's four towers to see the Lord and the last of his keep guards attempting to lower his treasury strongbox. Beneath, the lord's ladywife and children had clearly just escaped the keep by being lowered on ropes. The party blasted the rope, heard the treasure spill to the ground, and now confront the Lord and his last guardians.

Lord Bartheleme of Houndshead